The Lights at Temple Square

Ever since I can remember, my family has had the tradition of going to Temple Square to look at the beautiful lights. I remember watching Mr. Kruger's Christmas when I was little. We went this past weekend as we always to with the whole family. (except for my dad who had had surgery the day before) We always eat a Crown Burger.

This is Ava, a.k.a Snow White eating her fries.


Our family on main street.

The beautiful temple taken from main street.

The whole, family bundled up.

The grand kids.

Thanks to my awesome family. We have and continue to create some great memories!

And the winners of "Stew" are...

Lindsey & Wendy!!! Congratulations. Please email me your address to cbrunger@gmail as soon as possible so I can try and get them to you by Christmas.

To all my fellow bloggers, Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year!

Meet "Stew"

Meet the 2009 Christmas Craft, I like to call "Stew". He is a pillow with a hand stitched smile, button eyes, and rustic bells for hair.


This is my share of 30! All together, my mom, sisters, and I completed 110 snowman!

Now for the best part...I would love to give a "Stew" away. Leave a comment by Sunday, December 2oth. The drawing will be random by one of my children.

Hope you all have a great holiday!

New Moon

I have to say that last weekend topped my list of memorable, exciting, and fun weekends. It was a great girls night out, and didn't end until the next morning at 3:30a.m. That is because we went to the premiere of "NEW MOON" at midnight. It was so amazing! It was my sister Liz, my mom, and our great friend, Holly.

This is us happily waiting outside in the cold to see are long awaited flick.

It was Holly's birthday Friday, so we started celebrating before the movie, by going to the Olive Garden. (Holly's pick, and a favorite of mine too)

We then went shopping to all of the surrounding stores that were open until midnight. We found some great finds! It was so much fun to be free from children, and to just hang out together all night. PLUS, the movie was amazing....can't wait until Eclipse. Maybe we can try and "top" the fun we had that night:)

Jazz game with Dad

What could be better than a late night with dad to the Jazz Game? Jordan and Lexi were both so excited!





A picture with the team mascot!

The aftermath...Jordan says he loves basketball, AGAIN, and Lexi wants to be a Jazz dancer...I bet you can't guess what her favorite part was...Halftime:))

Picking the "Perfect" Pumpkin

Though it may seem like more work for mom and dad, picking the perfect pumpkin out of the patch is much more exciting that going to the grocery store! Every year we go to the patch and are given our own set of clippers to find the "perfect" pumpkin. The patch is overwhelming with thousands of pumpkins, but somehow, someway, we all seem to find the most "perfect" one!

Plus, we get to run through the kiddie maze.

Ava, was the only one short enough to actually consider it a challenge, but the older two had fun chasing her.

Jordan and Lexi have succeeded...Yeah!

Lexi's "Perfect" Pumpkin

Jordan's "Perfect" Pumpkin

And, Ava's got her hands on this "perfect" pumpkin, and will not allow anyone to take it...even to pay for it!

We Love the Pumpkin Patch!

Is it too late for Halloween??

I figured since my Christmas is already up...I better post the Halloween shots before the shots of the kiddos decorating the tree...Ya think?!?


Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture of all three of my children at once. Every time Ava would see Jordan, she would start to cry, and say, "JOJO is SCARY!"

Ava, as a pumpkin, of course I couldn't get her to wear the cute little hat with the stem and leaves on it. Pigtails with black ribbon will have to do!

Lexi was a Skelarocker...I guess a combo of a skeleton and a rocker girl?? She looked cute, and loved what I did with her make-up and hair. I don't think she thought her hair could do that!

Lexi and Ava

Mommy Time!

Have you ever had a moment where things will happen throughout the day, and you wonder if someone is trying to tell you something?...well, it happened to me yesterday.
I am cleaning the house while the kids are at school, and had just finished the kitchen. I was headed to the bathrooms when a little 2 year old stopped me and said,
"Mom, will you play with me?"
Of course I had 3 bathrooms left, and the dusting and the floors, BUT, I decided a few minutes wouldn't kill me. We sat and played little people, and colored, and what started to be a few minutes turned into 2 1/2 hours!
After "play time" I continued with my chores for the day, and while dusting came across a quote I have had for a few years:
" One Hundred years from now it will not matter
what kind of car I drove,
what kind of house I lived in,
how much money was in my bank account,
nor what my clothes looked like.
But, the world may be a better place because
I was important in the life of a child."
After that moment it clicked...just as I was entering my 7 year old daughters room, the door shut, with a note reading, "Please Knock".
In the blink of an eye, my little two year old will not be asking mommy to "play" anymore. Her bedroom door will reveal an independent girl asking for privacy. Take advantage of every opportunity to enjoy every minute of every day! I will.

Disneyland & H1N1

I whole heartedly agree with what many of you are thinking to yourselves right now...Disneyland and H1N1 should NEVER be used in the same sentence. Total opposites. One brings the most amazing joy and happiness, and great memories, while the other brings total misery. We had both first hand. Our trip to Disneyland was in October because we had never been their during the Halloween festivities before, and really wanted to see it!

The kids were great on the drive down. We left at 6 am Sunday morning and got there at 4pm California time. We checked into the hotel, and were looking forward to our first day a Disneyland on Monday. Monday went well. We had a great time. Then on Tuesday, about noon, I started to feel really sick. I mean really sick. My whole body ached. I wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to walk back to the hotel. We made it back, had lunch, and Mike took the kids back over to the park so I could rest.

Wednesday morning I felt even worse. Fever, vomiting, cough, headache, I literally thought I was going to DIE! Mike, again, took the kids by himself to Disneyland so I could sleep all day in the hotel. That night, I told him we better go home. I wasn't getting any better, and the hotel room was driving me crazy. We told the kids...they cried, the most unpleasant, begging, pleading cry. Of course, they did not understand why we couldn't just stay. We were leaving, and missing out on 3 extra days of our vacation!

Thursday morning, the doctors confirmed the diagnosis that I was already pretty sure of...H1N1. Sucks, really sucks! Luckily, we got a few good shots on our first day!
It really was amazing during Halloween. Everything was decorated so cute!

Ava riding the fishy.

Waiting for Bugs Life to begin...this was one of the days I was in bed...take note at the uncombed hair!

Waiting for Toy Story..again, mommy is in bed, and our hair did not get combed!

One of the mornings the kids went to Monsters Inc. first thing. They had all of the kids line up for a "Scream Contest". Jordan won!! He was awarded this certificate that he could use all day on that ride, to go to the front of the line!

Here Jordan is signing the certificate he won at Monsters Inc.

Candy Corn Acres in California Adventure.

The "Celebrate" parade on main street.

Jordan on Splash Mountain

While we were riding Pirates of the Caribean, Mike took Ava over to talk to some Disneyland employees at a keosk. She gave Ava this pin that said, "Honorary citizen of Disneyland".

The Haunted Mansion was a whole new ride. Everything had been changed for Halloween.

Swimming at the hotel.

More fall and Halloween decor!

Riding Dumbo!

Mr. Toad

Hopefully, we make it back really soon to make up for having to leave early!

Lexi and Ava waiting to go in on our first day! Hey Look, their hair is combed!!

Jordan earns his Wolf!

After much time and effort for Jordan, his leader's, and his mom and dad, he earned his Wolf badge in scouts. Congrats!!

"Take me out to the Ball Game"

I love, love, baseball season. I think it's because I have such great memories watching my dad and brother play when I was a kid. Lexi played coach pitch softball this year and had a lot of fun. She is a good little hitter. She actually caught a fly ball one of the girls hit, and I am so sad I wasn't recording. The look on her face after she realized the ball was in her mitt was priceless. Mouth wide open, jaw dropping, followed by screaming and smiling in excitement, and amazement!

Jordan's team went to the tournament, and were the Mapleton City Champions! They all played so hard in the heat of the day, some days two games in a row. They had a great coach, and great friends on the team. I am very proud of them both for their accomplishments!

I thought that was a pretty good action shot of him catching that ball!